Warhammer 40K Lite?

[Morlock]

Yeah I've been thinking about the issue you raise. On one hand, you have the mighty 40k universe. It's a big draw, and typically, players are going to want "fan service," for lack of a better term. On the other, you have what I like about the lore, which is a fairly small fraction.

And your recommendations are a good try at how to square the circle. And to be fair to the source material - it's a big galaxy. There's no real reason that a very non-cannon setting can't be squeezed in without actually violating cannon.

Plus, the types of weaponry and armor (ammo throwers, lasguns, ballistic armor) that those 'mere mortals' typically get is fairly well represented in GURPs rules (including High Tech) already, rather than having to make up (and dial down) rules for power armor and bolters. You can have peasants with slug-throwers threatening your players, rather than bolters!

Yeah, as soon as I submitted my post I started thinking about it and realized that stuff like Ultra-Tech and Space would probably cover a heck of a lot of my needs.

Edit: on the other other hand, Space Marines are cool. I suppose my thinking was, wouldn't it be nice to tone them down to the point that I can put them in the story? My real question wasn't so much "how do I do this without violating cannon" as it was, "where do I get some statblocks for this toned down version of 40k I want to do? I don't want to spend a year statting all of this up..."